


Relax

by EmScully



Series: Long Road [4]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, MSR, Recovery, mention of rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 04:20:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12182781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmScully/pseuds/EmScully
Summary: Scully and Mulder fight to relax after Scully's attack.





	Relax

Mulder opened his eyes and was nose to nose with Scully. He was in her bed, under her covers. He blinked and focused on her face. Her lips were parted as she was breathing lightly. Her hands were tucked under her chin, the sheets clutched between them. She looked young and vulnerable. He suddenly felt hot and slipped out from between the sheets and padded to the bathroom. He closed the door behind him quietly and flicked on the light. He squinted in the brightness and ran the cold water, splashing it on his face. He rubbed the sleep and water from his eyes with a towel that smelled a little too much like Scully and sat on the rim of the bathtub. He was shirtless but wore his old grey sweatpants, and for some reason, he felt like he was on fire. His skin flushed and he felt nauseous. The events of the last three days had been a blur, but in that moment he suddenly saw everything in a new crystal clear light. _Scully was raped._ In a second he was heaving over the toilet, snot and tears pouring from his face as he retched. _Scully was raped. Scully was raped. Scully was raped._ He heaved and fought to bring air into his chest. The heaves turned to sobs and he pulled Scully’s towel from the hanger and cried into it, trying to muffle the sound. He felt like a child, curled up on the cold tile of the bathroom, crying into a towel, sour vomit in the toilet bowl.

            He wasn’t sure how long he was on the floor, but he froze when door clicked open and Scully slowly stepped into the light. “Mulder?” Her voice was quiet and soothing.

            Mulder coughed and righted himself, leaning against the tub, snotty towel in his lap, “hi, uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She just shook her head lightly and looked at him with pained eyes. He couldn’t meet her gaze, so he pushed himself up and flushed the toilet and closed the lid. He tried to ignore Scully’s stare as he rinsed his mouth out and splashed water on his face again.

            Her hand on his back made him jump, if she felt it, she didn’t react. “Mulder.”

            Mulder looked at Scully’s reflection in the mirror, “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

            “There is nothing to be sorry for,” her hand pressed a bit more into his back and he turned, displacing her hand and then taking it in his own.

            “I need to be strong for you.”

            The corners of her mouth moved slightly and her eyes pierced his. He tried to look away but she took his chin in her hand and forced him to look at her, “you are my strength.”

            He swallowed and he watched Scully’s eyes follow the bobbing of his Adam’s apple then focus back on his eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

            “Try.”

            He sighed and rolled his shoulders, “you are the most important thing in my life, Scully. And to know that you have been so hurt, so… brutalized causes me to anger in a way that I have never felt before. I stood in the door of your apartment, watching you bleed and just...” his voice trialed off. “I’m sorry. This isn’t helping you at all. It’s not about me.”

            Scully was chewing on her lip, her hands no longer on his body were picking at the torn skin of her fingers, her eyes now on the floor. She shook her head, a small noise coming from her throat.   

            “Scully. Shit, Scully, I am sorry,” he placed a hand on her shoulder and felt her all but crumble underneath it. She moved her body, pressing it into Mulder’s chest, her face pressing into his sternum, her breath hot on his skin. He ran his hands over her back. “I’m sorry, Scully.”

            “Please stop saying that.” Her voice was muffled in his chest.

            _Fuck._ “Do you want to go back to bed?”

            She stepped away from him, her face flush, “I, uh. I need to use the bathroom.”

            Mulder nodded, kissed the crown of her head and stepped out of the bathroom. He sat on Scully’s bed in the dark and waited for her to come out. After a few minutes he started to get antsy, but before he could get up, the sink turned off and Scully stepped into the hall. “Mulder?” She called softly from the bathroom doorway.

            Mulder jumped up from the bed and was next to her in three strides “are you okay?”

            She ignored his question, “do you know where my pills are?”

            “I put them in the cabinet above the kitchen sink.”

            She moved to walk past him but he pressed his hand on her shoulder, “I got it Scully, go back to bed.”     

            “I can’t sleep,” she whispered, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest.

            “Okay, do you want some tea?” He took her hand and they walked through the dark into the kitchen. Mulder pushed around some pills bottles, squinting at the names in the dim light from the street, Scully leaned in the doorway watching him. He pushed two pills into her hand and filled a glass with water and handed it to her. “Tea?”

            She swallowed the pills and sipped at the water, “no, thank you.” They stood across from each other in the dark, neither moving nor saying anything. After a few minutes of dark silence, Scully turned and made her way to the bedroom. Mulder followed but only as far as the living room and regarded the couch. The side lamp in Scully’s room was on and he saw her sitting on her bed. She leaned to look down the hall, “Mulder?” He walked slowly to the bedroom, his hands rubbing either bicep. He stood in the doorway and looked at Scully sitting on the bed, a heating pad on her belly. _God, she’s beautiful._ He smiled unconsciously and watched Scully tuck her hair behind her ear. She patted the bed next to her and he walked around to her side and sat next to her, his hand on her knee. She put her hand over his, warm from the heating pad, “Mulder?”

            “Yeah?”

            “I love you.” Her small hand squeezed his but it felt like she was squeezing his chest.

“I love you, so much, Scully.” He cupped her face lightly with her free hand and watched her lips press together in a shy smile as tears swam in her eyes. His body screamed at him to kiss her but his mind protested. _Not yet. Not now. Not like this._ “How’s the pain?”

            She pushed tears from her face, “hurts.”

            Mulder nodded then climbed up into the bed next to her and slowly lowered her down, curling his body around her. He felt her stiffen but he didn’t pull away. He pushed his hand under her t-shirt and the heating pad and slowly made light circles on her skin with the pads of his fingers. She breathed deeply but pressed her back into his chest. He pressed his face into her hair and kissed her neck, “I love you, Scully.” After a half hour, Scully relaxed enough to fall asleep in his arms. Mulder looked at the lit lamp next to them but didn’t dare move. Scully’s breath evened and her back relaxed against him. His hand stilled on her belly, but he didn’t move it. He closed his eyes and breathed her in, willing himself to relax himself. But his mind was going 100mph. In the span of three days, their lives had changed drastically in both a terrible and the most wonderful of ways. But he had no idea what was in store for them now.


End file.
